Drawing Males

[Kylana]

I agree completely, kerryfox. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using reference, ever. People do get uppity about that for some reason, but I think it's because they don't see the difference between using reference and tracing it while calling it 100% your own. I love that so many stock artists give us tons of reference to learn from--I too use it as a learning tool and trace over plenty of pics just to get a better feel of the form. That way it's easier later on to just grab a pose from a pic and go from there.

And Melancholy, that's a good point. Just don't expect them to have dead-on anatomy, and they're great reference :P

[MelancholyMelody~]

@kerryfox: Yeah, people do get awkward about that stuff, but using references is great for practice and sketching to get a good rough idea of the shape for something. Doing lots of quick sketches of reference poses is good to help you learn anatomy and warm up, too. And even when doing a big "proper" piece using references can always be a help to get things just right.
I often struggle with proportions. I used to be great at it but now I think I over think it and it becomes less natural. I've gotten into a bad habit with shoulders and hips at the moment. I've got to concentrate on them until I'm really good! }:<
Whenever I'm struggling with drawing a certain thing I find myself looking at it on people everywhere, be they live, in games, cartoons (obviously the more realistic cartoons and anime, lol). A good thing to remember if that everyone is different too, everyone has a slightly different build, so once you've got the basics down you can think about how those the details might differ from person to person.

@Kylana: Yes, it's mostly good for poses and due to the BULDGING MUSCLES it's good to see where everything connects. Of course different artists will have different styles, so as long as you don't take the stylised art too seriously as anatomy lessons you're good, lol.
I also like to trace things to help get a feel for something. I thought I was the only person who did that!
I like to occasionally print of line art of a style I like a trace it so my hand "gets used to" drawing like that. x3 I had these lovely colouring books for mermaids and fairies and such I always used to get on holiday when I was younger and I loved going over the lines/tracing it so I could have other copies to colour later in a different way and to learn the shape of things.
Actually, come to think of it I bet tracing would be good for negative space drawing, just getting the silhouette and looking at it to see how things all fit together. Although it's more positive drawing, it can help you with silhouettes and getting a feel for what negative space drawing actually is, which can be difficult sometimes.

[Kylana]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that studies people like that, haha. I used to focus on whatever game characters were in front of me, but I'm making a point to study real people whenever I can. I hope I'm sneaky enough about it so I don't look like some freak XD

And that's a great point about studying negative space like that--what a great idea! I see so many art thumbnails start out as silhouettes but I've never gotten the knack of it. I'm going to find a coloring book (or maybe one of those nifty faux stained glass ones?) and try that out.

[MelancholyMelody~]

Lol, you could sit in a public place with a sketchbook just peering creepily over the top of it and staring at people, then ducking down to sketch something. If someone sees you you just have to look really shocked and hide behind the book. That'd really worry people.

I like colouring a whole lot too~ I especially like colouring things to wrong colour, like I've done in one of the more recent books of fairies I got. I usually get tired of colouring backgrounds with all the brown and green over and over, so I decided to colour everything really weirdly so it looks like an alien planet or some weird pop art. It's really fun. x3

That's something I really love about Digital art, all of the colours are right there for you to use. Even in MS Paint you can go nuts with colours; no worries about sharpening pencils, crayons, using ink, smudging things, markers. They all have their own good qualities, but at the same time it's nice to have access to all of the things really easily.
Beats rummaging through a million crayons in one of my older collections to find the right one.

[Shouffle]

Im better at drawing males cos I have myself as a model : D But it's also fun to draw girls. They just end up being a bit flat chested, boobs are hard ones to place.
My girlfriend once posed for me : D it was fun.

[Jandi]

I'm not really oh so great at drawing males XD
Gotta practice on that XD

[Purochen]

I'm fine at both of them C: 'cept for the fact that I tend to give the girls huge boobs or place them too high sometimes... I love curves~

anyway, it's all just a matter of practise and good observation skills! especially the last part... If you can't observe, practise won't be helping much imo D:

[Angel]

I find men easier to draw. Since I like anime, I tend to draw in an anime style. And anime is typically about exaggerating forms.

Well, guys don't really need that much exaggeration. Keep the anatomy realistic, add muscles, and you're set. Girls on the other hand have a lot of things that can be tweaked.

Abnormally thin waists, abnormally thin necks, gravity-defying boobs, exaggerated legs, and so on. I mean, there is just so much more that goes into a good female form. ; _;

[Micamone]

I can't draw men, they're, I know it's not the right word[i can't think of it though], square. I'm trying to draw them more often then not so that I can get better though.
I also AM a girl, and draw them more[with faeries, mermaids, and of course, my friends].

[MelancholyMelody~]

@Purochen: I have a bad habit of that too, boobs too big and/or too high. I've managed to get out of the habit as I've practiced more. c: Curves are INSANELY fun to draw. And I can't help but find it really fun to draw big boobs... and like, extremely curvy figures. x3

@Angel: I'm the same with the anime style. I really love cartoons and anime, so comic/manga/cartoon/anime style is the main one I draw in, especially anime. I just love drawing it too much. I could do with practicing more western cartoon-y stuff and comic style but it's so hard to resist the "supah kawaii" powers of anime. Big eyes and crazy hair~

@Micamone: I do that a lot more too due to liking to draw fantasy things. You could try drawing male fantasy creatures, that might help. Plus I find it quite fun to draw male fantasy beings. It's also a good challenge to try and keep them manly when they're a fairy. Unless they're a kid it's not always the manliest of forms.

[glimpse]

I've heard that I cannot draw boobs. I feel that, as a female, I've failed myself somehow. D; I can't draw fantasy things for some reason either. I can't think of creative enough outfits, which is worse than it sounds because I'm terrible at drawing clothes in the first place. But I'd love to try. :3

I think my style right now reminds me TOO MUCH of anime. I get all sfenkegeRAGED< about it since I want to venture more towards western cartoony stuff. BUT ITS NOT EASY D: NOT EASY AT ALL. [/whine]

And I totally agree with you angel, females have crazy bodies. I love drawing them though, just because they have so many variables I can tinker with, if yaknow what I mean. xD

[Maeve]

Can't believe we got to 100 posts in this thread lol

For some reason, I'm good at drawing male faces and female bodies... My males always end up looking too feminine, and my females have crappy face most of the time, especially the eyes... Though I can draw pretty good eyes, but not if there is a face around them.

I've started working back on my drawings. I took all the books I have about drawing and restarted reading them and making all the exercises they tell you to do... I really feel like it's helping me perfect everything and correct some mistakes I was making. But it's long and my hand hurts lol

My style right now is not that clearly defined... I've grown up reading European comics, mostly stuff from France and Belgium, and it influenced how I started to draw things. I started reading manga about 3 years ago and spent more time on the internet, seeing all sort of nice anime-style drawings and of course it influenced me too... I can draw pretty much anything, at least if I spend enough time on it, but I consider that I still have a lot of work to do before I can have a really defined style.

[TK1414]

I used to not be able to draw male figures, and I always thought that it was because I'm a female, but it could just be that a man's form is very parallel... They're kinda like sticks and don't have hips. And I find them kinda.... Well, for lack of a better term, "Spikey" or "Sharp" or "Pointy" or "Angle-y"... It's less aesthetically pleasing and you don't really have anything as a land mark for proportions such as breasts... And it's kinda hard to estimate how large a male rib cage is if you can't really see it in a photograph... What I'm trying to say is, if you look at a fully clothed male chest, you don't really see anything but a flat abdomin... On a female, you have "refrence-boobs" as I like to call them.

[MelancholyMelody~]

Yeah, I have that trouble too, Herman, with drawing clothes. It's like I have all these ideas from pictures I've looked at in my head but they're too fuzzy to turn into actual drawings. Just like the feel of it rather than an actual image.

However, if you want to get into more western-cartoony things, here are some great tutorials I found in the past couple of days.
Hell, here's a list of tutorials I have saved!

http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Expression-tutorial-77399204 <-- she has a lot more listed in her comments, Pose, Hand, Ladies, Fellas, Face.
http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Emotions-and-Facial-Expression-47118559 <--has a huge collection of tutorials in their journal here: http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/journal/4895422/
Same person as above's other stuff: http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/tutorials.html

This guy is an essential whenever anyone suggests tutorials/resources for art:
Andrew Loomis (particularly Figure Drawing for all it's Worth)
Posemaniacs is fantastic!
Concept Art is great for inspiration!
Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling

THIS is perhaps the biggest resource I've found. In the "◦Art List of /ic/" section there's an UNGODLY amount of tutorials, a huge list of things to help you learn and grow as an artist, it's just... INSANE.

Also, I saved this from...somewhere:
1. Study the following first;
-Anatomy(muscle structure, bone structure, construction of objects)
-Perspective(viewing angle, 1, 2 and 3 point perspectives)
-Composition(placement of objects, focal points, viewing angle, overall feel)

2. Study the following next;
-Contrast(emphasization of opposites colors to create depth)
-Light/Shadow(how light creates shadows and highlights)
-Color Value(mood, atmosphere, how they affect a picture)

3. Study the following LAST;
-Creativity(concepts and imagination)
-Style(proper exaggeration of the above basics of art)


I might just a thread with all of this. I didn't realise I had so much saved.


Also, @TK1414: Yes, I find guys harder to draw because of there being less "landmarks" as it were.

[Eskimo]

Oh, I can draw male perfectly fine. It's when you get to females and all the curves. I find it difficult unless I'm drawing a girl who isn't very.. 'blessed'.

Although I do draw feminine men all the time.. It's very fun, yes?